1. Field
The invention relates to self-optimizing method and machine, and more particularly relates to method for self-optimizing, and machine which self-optimizes, dynamically and in real time.
2. Prior Art
Robotics has been considered essential to enhanced productivity and standard of living for the coming years. It is a highly competitive and rapidly growing industry. The industry is full of hard-working, reknowed scientists, engineers, and skilled workers diligently working day and night. All over the world, new institutions are being specially set up to develop new robots and particularly to provide "artificial intelligence" to robots. These robots are still to be controlled and programmed by the human, who is not only imperfect, inconsistent, non-durable but, above all, million times slower than modern microprocessors in data input or recall, comparing, calculating, correlating, analyzing, commanding.
Still, present-day robots are extremely useful. By transfering intelligence, instead of skill, from human to machine, they have ushered us from the First Industrial Revolution into this exciting, Second Industrial Revolution. Unfortunately and contrary to long-felt need, they are dumb, inheriting all the defects of, and at every step along the way totally depending on the imperfect and slow human sampler, tester, data analyzer, programmer, and machine builder.
Existing robots are also inaccurate, and non-uniformly so on the working space, because of engineering compromises, inertia effects, and tolerance variations that cause the operation of any given controlled system to deviate from the standard assumed for design purposes. This standard or response function varies with individual machines, parts, materials, environments, persons. No wonder optimum conditions are often never achieved. To render a robot "artificially intelligent", one usually: (1) arbitrarily samples a very restricted number of previously made machines (having unknown but chance combinations of materials and parts); (2) tests them within narrow experimental ranges (one, two, or three parameters by assuming all other being unimportant); (3) analyzes the test results to obtain an "average response function"; and (4) develops a fixed computer program based on this average response function. This procedure is imperfect, inefficient, and often irrelevant.
Thus, meaningful optimization must be done dynamically and in real time, with the very machine itself and the particular combination of other equipment, materials, parts, environment, governmental rules and regulations. Each of the equipment, materials, parts, environment, . . . categories may contain tens, hundreds, or more parameters that affect the performance characteristic or response function. All these parameters should be tested; none can be eliminated apriori. Yet even tested at only two levels for each parameter, the required number of tests, i.e., n=2.sup.m for m parameters becomes quickly unmanageable and totally impractical. The conventional robotic intelligence approach is thus forced not to follow the above rules of good optimization resorting, instead, to merely hoping, assuming, and extrapolating.
Accordingly, an object of the present invention to provide improved self-optimizing machine and method;
A further object of the invention is to provide self-optimizing machines or method equipped with modern microprocessors with nanosecond computing speeds and programmed to generate statistical design matrices capable of handling tens, hundreds, thousands, or more parameters in real time;
Another object of this invention is to provide self-optimizing machines and method which can be optimized almost continuously and instantly.
A broad object of the invention is to provide self-optimizing machines and method based on controlled tests performed on the very particular machines or method themselves without relying on extrapolations based on sampled test results obtained on other similar but often different or even irrelevant machines or methods;
Another object of the invention is to optimize machines, dynamically and in real time, by the installation on the machines batteries of modern microelectronics, sensors, actuators, signal-transmission lines, and related devices;
A further object of the invention is to provide small (less than 0.1 or 0.001 m.sup.3), rapid (nanosecond), efficient self-optimizing machines to fit into small or subcompact but fast moving cars, handdrills or other appliances, rapidly reacting furnaces, or dying patients for instantly correcting deviations from ideal conditions or for dispensing necessary chemicals or drugs in optimum combinations in a continuous manner;
A further object of the invention is provide self-optimizing machines which do not just passively adapt to one or two parameters in the environment, but actively seek and automatically set at the instantaneous optimum combination of the many parameters in the equipment, materials, parts, environment, personnel, and other categories, the machines substantially continuously designing, manufacturing or processing, testing, analyzing data and optimizing, and around-the-clock and 100% checking, with instant feed-back to supply design data for redesigning, retesting, reoptimizing.
Further objects and advantages of my invention will appear as the specification proceeds.